The first two COVID-19 vaccines to complete clinical trials have been so successful that people are skeptical about the next one.
Volunteers who were part of the clinical trials for Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine had antibodies in their systems months after receiving the vaccine. The new data, which was from Moderna’s phase 1 trial, is good news for researchers as they try to determine how long immunization will last in people who are vaccinated.
The researchers found that all 34 healthy patients who received two 100 microgram doses of the vaccine 28 days apart still had antibodies in their system 90 days after the second injection. While the antibody count did drop off a bit, especially in older patients, researchers are optimistic that the vaccine will provide long-term efficacy against COVID-19.
Moderna’s vaccine is more than 94% effective, and the company has applied for an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Moderna said it expects to have 20 million doses available in the United States by the end of the year, with an additional 80 million ready by the end of the first quarter in 2021.
Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration program leading the vaccine development effort, said trial participants should be first in line to be vaccinated. They were not mentioned Tuesday in a meeting by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention board that recommends who should get the vaccine first.
Candidate COVID-19 vaccines, one made by Pfizer/ BioNTech and the other by Moderna, appear poised to receive FDA emergency use authorization within weeks after showing they are safe and more than 94% effective. The companies conducted large trials of 44,000 and 30,000 people, respectively, in which half of the volunteers received a placebo. Participants don’t know which they received.
